Hey folks, Harry here with the latest about the future of John Singleton. It seems that his SINBAD movie might have fallen apart, as he doesn't seem to have been excited about it, and from below it seems to have become a 'past tense'. Personally, I'm kinda glad... At one point I heard they were thinking of calling it THE EIGHTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD... whew... Great Title. Ahem. Here's a rundown it seems of what he has on his mind for pursuing to make next...

Hey Harry,

this is spectrumefp with an update on John Singleton.

I'm a student at UGA and we had the pleasure of getting John Singleton to come speak to us. It was very informative. Singleton revealed that Columbia Pictures offered him $150,000 NOT to direct "Boyz N' the Hood," he was dissapointed that the serious "Rosewood" flopped while the cartoonish "Shaft" was his biggest hit, Tupac Shakur had a role in every one of his movies until his death changed that, and that all the actors who played Nazis in "Higher Learning" were, in fact, Jewish.

In the Q&A he was asked what his future projects were. He said that it was confidential, but naturally he let a few things (actually, a lot) slip.

As for the Sinbad project you've been hoping for he said he "wanted to do it," but didn't say anything more specific. He said, however, that he wanted his next film to lean toward sci-fi because people wouldn't expect that from him. In his words, he wanted to "flip the script."

Oddly enough, all the projects he listed next were either adaptations or biographies. He mentioned he wanted to film Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God," and that he was discussing it with Oprah Winfrey. He didn't detail how Oprah was even involved in the first place (she owns the rights maybe?), but that it was something he wanted to do.

Next he mentioned "Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America" by Nathan McCall. I personally don't know anything about this book, but Singleton compared it to Ellison's "The Invisible Man" calling it the book that this generation of black men should read.

For the biographies he mentioned he wanted to make a film about Kimba Smith. I would like to see that happen considering the audience reaction indicated that pretty much no one knew who that was. Smith was a student who was unjustly jailed on drug charges. She was eventually pardoned by Bill Clinton after serving about five or six years. Singleton said he wants Taraji P. Henson ("Baby Boy") to play Smith.

The last may be the weirdest. A biopic on Nat Turner is controversial enough considering it deals with religion, racism, and murder except that Singleton wants to film it as - get this - a comedy. If anyone can pull it off, Singleton can. He said that the only way he could film it was if he financed it himself. In other words, don't count on it. It sounded pretty good, but considering today's shitty studio system it sounds like a lost cause.

None of these are set in stone so don't complain if nothing comes of them. Singleton himself was reluctant to reveal them because he didn't want people to expect things that may never happen. Consider this something to whet your appetite, if nothing more. He also said he shot a short film on DV, but didn't say anything about plot, actors, or release. Oh, well. Here's hoping Singleton continues making the brilliant films he does.

Call me

spectrumefp